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Mirrors In Russian Women’S Autobiographical Writing: The Self Reflected In Works By Alla Demidova And Vera Luknitskaia, Karin Sarsenov

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

In autobiographical writing, the mirror is not only a privileged metaphor for the genre as a whole; it also functions as a primary administrator of boundaries, demarcating the space of the self from the foreign, the chaotic, and the unknown. The mirror metaphor is not gender neutral: in Western elite culture the mirror has served to reinforce the patriarchal dichotomy between man/mind and woman/body, prompting Luce Irigaray’s view of the mirror as “a male-directed instrument of literal objectification.” This article examines two women-authored texts in which the mirror motif is fundamental to the construction of the autobiographical self: the actress …

Mirrors In Russian Decadent And Symbolist Prose: Valery Briusov And Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Kirsten Lodge

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Examining mirror imagery in the prose works “In the Mirror” by Valery Briusov and The Resurrected Gods: Leonardo da Vinci by Dmitry Merezhkovsky, both published in 1902, this article situates the Russian Decadent and Symbolist associations of the mirror in the pan-European literary and philosophical context. The mirror constitutes the threshold of manifold oppositions, including life and art, life and death, and reality and dream or imagination. It is a realm of alternative reality, magical and seductive, as in Briusov’s story, or potentially both demonic and divine, as in Merezhkovsky’s novel. In accordance with the Romantic tradition as well as …

No Mere Reflection: Mirrors As Windows On Russian Culture, Julia Chadaga

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

This essay traces the development of mirror use in Russia from the medieval period to the modern day with particular attention to the dynamic interplay between the utilitarian and symbolic functions of this object. I examine how the discourse around mirrors in Russia was shaped by a preoccupation with border-crossing and identity that is distinctive to Russian culture as well as by mirror lore from other world traditions; and I demonstrate that the presence of mirrors shaped the production of imaginative literature in profound ways. The essay focuses on several key functions of the Russian mirror: as a site of …

The Mirror In Art: Vanitas, Veritas, And Vision, Helena Goscilo

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Humankind’s venerable obsession with the mirror, traceable to the ancient myths of Medusa and Narcissus, is copiously attested in Western art, which historically relied on the mirror as both practical tool and polysemous trope. While the mirror’s reflective capacities encouraged its identification with the vaunted mimetic function of literature and film, its refractive quality enabled artists to explore and comment on perspective, in the process challenging the concept of art’s faithful representation of phenomena. My radically compressed and selective overview of the mirror’s significance in Western iconography focuses primarily on visibility, gaze, and gender, dwelling on key moments and genres …

Introduction, William P. Rivers

Russian Language Journal

This volume is dedicated to an extraordinary leader, scholar, teacher, friend and mentor to many, Richard D. Brecht, in honor of his distinguished career as a researcher, organizer, advocate, and leader of significant and lasting institutions which have served the Less Commonly Taught Languages, the field of Russian, and the language readiness and preparedness of the United States. There is a tendency to count achievements as the measure of a man, more so when the qualities cited above are said to accrue to him. While Richardʹs work has always been scientifically rigorous and politically and epistemologically provocative, what is far …

On The Status Of Russian Perfective Passives In –Sja, James S. Levine

Russian Language Journal

In an early and important study of voice in Russian, Babby and Brecht (1975) introduced significant theoretical revisions to prevailing transformational analyses of passives in Russian. In their article, B&B demonstrated the inadequacies of previous analyses, which posited a single “passive transformation” for Russian. Instead, they proposed an analysis of voice that achieved maximum generality by accounting in a principled way for the syntactic relations between active, passive, and middle sentences. In particular, they argued that passives formed with the suffix –en-­‐‑ must be derived differently from passives in –sja, the former resulting from a lexical process that derived –en-­‐‑adjectives …

Adult Learners’ Perspectives On The Acquisition Of L2 Russian Pragmatic Competence, Victor Frank

Russian Language Journal

Decades of research have highlighted the central role that instruction, interaction, and feedback play in the acquisition of a foreign or second language, whether in the classroom or in naturalistic contexts, particularly in the domain of interlanguage grammar. The role that these factors play in the acquisition of interlanguage pragmatics has come under rigorous investigation only in the last decade (Barron 2002). In this article, I will discuss the degree to which adult learners of Russian acquire native-­‐‑like pragmatic competence, and present their own unique perspectives on its acquisition, both in the domestic classroom and during study abroad.

À La Recherche Du Temps Perdu: Russian -­‐‑Sja And -­‐‑En-­‐‑ In Asbmt, Leonard H. Babby

Russian Language Journal

In 1973-­‐‑74, Dick Brecht and I wrote an article entitled The Syntax of Voice in Russian, which appeared in Language in 1975 (hereafter B&B 1975). Since then Dick and I have gone off in different directions, but I have returned periodically to the rich vein of data and problems in our paper and return to them again here, this time within the frame-­‐‑ work of the argument-­‐‑structure based theory of morphosyntax (ASBMT) proposed in Babby 2009, 2010a, 2010b, and 2011, which has enabled me, after the passage of 35 years, to pinpoint what was right in the Syntax of Voice …

Дисплейный Текст Как Форма Сетевого Общения, В. Г. Костомаров

Russian Language Journal

Нынешняя техногенная эпоха подарила людям чудесную возможность хранить знания не только в письме и чтении, но и более естественно, наглядно и красочно. Аудио-­‐‑видеозаписи, кино и телевидение, мобильная телефония, компьютер, и особенно интернет коренным образом меняют исторически сложившееся языковое существование людей. Библиотеки стали хранилищами отнюдь не только библиос (книг), но и карт, рисунков, фильмов, кассет, дисков, флешек, различных оцифровок аудио-­‐‑ и видеозаписей.

The Influence Of Prior Language Learning Experiences On Learning Of Unrelated Or Distantly Related Languages, Ewa Golonka

Russian Language Journal

Existing research provides evidence that learning one foreign language, and learning it well, makes learning another much easier. Learning another foreign language as an adult is easier both for those who acquired a second language (L2) in childhood and for those who acquired a second language as adolescents or adults in school. The learning of multiple languages within school settings in European countries, such as Benelux, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, is a common experience. In the United States, deliberate adult third language (L3) instruction—which accounts for learner’s knowledge of other foreign languages—has been primarily in U.S. government training institutes. 2 …

The Overseas Immersion Setting As Contextual Variable In Adult Sla: Learner Behaviors Associated With Language Gain To Level-­‐‑3 Proficiency In Russian, Dan E. Davidson, Maria D. Lekic

Russian Language Journal

Overseas immersion study for second language (L-­‐‑2) acquisition is widely regarded not only as valuable educationally, but also essential for the attainment of upper-­‐‑level proficiencies. Unfortunately, the mechanisms though which overseas language and cultural immersion training may (or may not) foster successful adult acquisition are still not well understood (e.g., Rivers, 1998; Ginsburg & Miller, 2000, Kinginger, 2011). As a result, researchers across a range of disciplinary backgrounds are examining cognitive, psycholinguistic, and cultural factors affecting linguistic outcomes within the study abroad environment, including increased efforts to account for the notable variation that has been observed in actual levels of …

Blogging And Tweeting And Chat, Oh My! Social Networks, Classroom Culture, And Foreign Language Instruction, Thomas Garza

Russian Language Journal

The first decade of the 21st century has witnessed an unprecedented global explosion in the number of online social networking sites (SNSs) available to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection. SNSs, such as Facebook, LiveJournal, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Bebo, and SixDegrees, among scores of others1, have transformed the mode and medium of person-­‐‑to-­‐‑ person communication, by making instant, direct – and free – contact with tens of thousands of interlocutors at one time a reality. A 2007 study of the National School Boards Association showed that American school-­‐‑age children were spending nine to twelve hours per week …

A Case Study Of The Acquisition Of Narration In Russian: At The Intersection Of Foreign Language Education, Applied Linguistics, And Second Language Acquisition, Benjamin Rifkin

Russian Language Journal

Studies of students’ foreign language proficiency—including Carroll (1967), Magnan (1986), and Thompson (1996)—have shown that students in their fourth year of language study typically demonstrate oral proficiency in the intermediate range. Thompson’s study found the median score of students’ oral proficiency in the fourth year to be at the intermediate high/advanced threshold, but her subjects at this level of instruction were students at Middlebury’s summer language program and were tested in the last week of the program. In my own teaching practice, I have found that most of the students majoring in Russian at the University of Wisconsin-­‐‑Madison graduate with …

Assessing The Oral Proficiency Of Adult Learners, “Heritage” And “Native” Speakers Using The Ilr Descriptions And Actfl Proficiency Guidelines: Considering The Challenges, Cynthia L. Martin

Russian Language Journal

The ILR Descriptions – Speaking and the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines – Speaking trace their genesis to an oral proficiency assessment system first developed at the Foreign Service Institute in the 1950s to assess “foreign language users’ abilities according to a consistent scale.” The original purpose was clearly aimed at assessing the abilities of non-­‐‑native, non-­‐‑heritage adult foreign language learners, and this genesis is still reflected in the current ILR Descriptions and the ACTFL Guidelines. However, tools based on these descriptions/guidelines are increasingly being used to assess the abilities of language users who are not what we would consider to be …

Heritage Is Not Enough: The Changing Demographics Of The Chinese Language Field In The United States, Scott Mcginnis

Russian Language Journal

In a series of articles beginning in 1994, Richard Brecht and the late A. Ronald Walton first identified four sectors in the United States as sources for providing national capacity in the Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs).

Taking The “L” Out Of Lctls: The Startalk Experience, Catherine Ingold, Mary Elizabeth Hart

Russian Language Journal

The less commonly taught languages in the United States are often those most critical to national security. How, then, can the number of students learning these languages be increased, and how can high-­‐‑quality instructors be produced to teach these languages? Having determined that foreign language skills are essential to diplomacy, economic competitiveness, and the security interests of the U.S., the Secretaries of State, Education, and Defense, and the Director of National Intelligence coordinated their efforts to expand language education beginning in kindergarten and continuing through elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education and into the workforce (United States Department of Education, 2008). …

Русификация И Казахизация Как Языковая Гомогенизация Многоязычного Казахстана, Элеонора Сулейменова

Russian Language Journal

Русификация и казахизация как процессы целенаправленной гомогенизации в языковом отношении располагаются в одном ряду с белорусизацией, украинизацией, полонизацией, узбекизацией, латышизацией, таджикизацией или исландизацией, и деятельность политических, образовательных, общественных, экономических, собственно лингвистических институтов по их реализации рассматривается как обычная государственная практика.

A Concurrent Validity Study Of Self-­‐‑Assessments And The Federal Interagency Language Roundtable Oral Proficiency Interview, Charles W. Stansfield, Jing Gao, William P. Rivers

Russian Language Journal

The National Language Service Corps (NLSC) was established in 2006 as a pilot program under the auspices of the National Security Education Program (NSEP). This new organization was tasked with providing and maintaining a standing civilian corps of certified bilinguals who would be available for service to federal government agencies as they are needed, and to state and local government agencies in time of emergency. The intent of the NLSC is to fill the gap between full-­‐‑time language services professionals and individuals who wish to volunteer for temporary services for short-­‐‑ or medium-­‐‑term assignments. The NLSC recruits a readily-­‐‑available pool …

Some Thoughts On The Societal Impact Of Linguistics, Arto Mustajoki

Russian Language Journal

Today, scholars are obliged to justify the necessity of research in their own fields. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the channels of societal impact of linguistic research. In other words, I will try to answer the following question: in what ways is the work of scholars dealing with language(s) useful for society? The paper is based on my articles published in Finnish (Mustajoki 2005, 2011) and on oral presentations in various academic circles. I will first discuss some general ideas concerning the societal impact of research and researchers. I will then try to apply these ideas to …

Russian Heritage Language Speakers In The U.S.: A Profile, Olga Kagan

Russian Language Journal

Brecht and Ingold (2002) advocate systematic efforts to develop heritage language (HL) pedagogy to remedy U.S. language deficits: “…because of [heritage language learners’(HLLs’)] existing language and cultural knowledge, they may require substantially less instructional time than other learners to develop these skills. This is especially true for speakers of the less commonly taught languages” (p. 1).

Examining The Validity Of The 2010 Prototype Ap Russian Exam Through A College Comparability Study, Camelot Marshall

Russian Language Journal

Since its inception twelve years ago, the Prototype AP® Russian Language and Culture Examination has developed into an assessment instrument that has increasingly become the culminating focus and a hallmark of high school Russian language study in select schools across the United States. Even more so, through the years of field-­‐‑testing, piloting, and making the tests operational, the design, content, development, administration, and analyses of the exam have evolved into the model for American Councils’ online assessments of language proficiency not only for Russian, but also for Flagship programs. These tests are already being developed in Arabic, Chinese, Persian, Russian, …

Assessment Practices In Startalk Language Programs: A View Of Current Language Assessment Literacy, Margaret E. Malone, Megan J. Montee, Francesca Disilvio

Russian Language Journal

Assessment is essential to education, because it provides information on students’ progress toward learning goals. Reliable and valid assessment can provide not only important summative information, but also formative information to instructors and learners on both what has been learned and what remains to be learned. However, in order for assessment to be used effectively, instructors must understand the components of a reliable and valid assessment system and how to incorporate such a system into classroom testing. Many language instructors in the United States may lack basic knowledge of assessment and measurement (Popham, 2009).

Language Matters: Some New Contributions From Sociology (Emanating From Richard Brecht’S Castle), John P. Robinson, William P. Rivers, Cynthia Costell, Jennifer Robinson

Russian Language Journal

As a result of the projects undertaken by the University of Maryland’s Center for the Advanced Study of Language, several new findings and insights have emerged from the highest quality data collections on Americans’ abilities in and attitudes toward foreign languages (FL). These involve the (now annual) language surveys conducted by the US Census Bureau and the bi-­‐‑annual General Social Survey (GSS) conducted by the University of Chicago since 1972. The Census Bureau has been documenting foreign languages spoken at home and how well individuals can speak English in such households. The 2000-­‐‑08 GSS has assessed whether adults can speak …

Full Issue

Russian Language Journal

No abstract provided.

The Struggle To Create Soviet Opera, Miriam Grinberg

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

It is opera, and opera alone that brings you close to the people, that endears your music to the real public and makes your names popular not only with individual small circles but, under favourable conditions, with the whole people. – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, premier composer of symphonies, ballets, and operas in Imperial Russia in the mid- to late 1800s.

Tchaikovsky made this remark while living under a tsarist regime, but the pervasive, democratic, and uniting qualities of opera that he so vividly described appealed to an entirely different party: the Bolsheviks. Rather than discard the “bourgeois” remains of the …

Marcus C. Levitt And Tatyana Novikov, Eds. Times Of Trouble: Violence In Russian Literature And Culture, Walter F. Kolonosky

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

While violence is a given in Russian literature and culture, its presence does not suggest that Russian civilization is characterized by a bloody monochromatic hue…